Redemption
Notes
Transcript
Handout
God is not waiting for us to get everything right to move, He is moving to make everything right.
God is not waiting for us to get everything right to move, He is moving to make everything right.
This morning we are going to see that no matter what kind of stress we are under, or what we are experiencing internally, we have a God who is still a redeemer.
Have you ever been disappointed with plans that you spent weeks months or years on and in the completion of those plans things did not go the way you wanted?
Soren Kierkegaard says that there is an anxiety in the infinite possibility of the future. And I can’t think of a better illustration of that than in the line to get ice cream.
There is little that is more anxiety producing than making sure you get the right ice cream at an ice cream stand.
Here are my steps for getting the right ice cream
read entire menu, not skipping over any option
strike out anything with peanuts in it or peanut butter
decide if in a chocolate mood or fruit mood
narrow down to two to five options
ask for samples of one to two options
make choice
regret choice immediately
while our problems are bigger than what kind of ice cream we should get, the issue remains that there is anxiety in human planning and that there is often disappointment in human resolve. What we need is a God who works through our ability to see things through.
background to what’s happening.
by Moses helping he made things worse
Moses spoke thus to the people of Israel, but they did not listen to Moses, because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery.
When we are in the middle of something anxiety producing, we often can’t hear anything around us. What I want to show you today is that God is working even through our work.
so how does God work when things seem worse?
we will see God redeems through failed plans
God redeems through broken spirits and burdened lives
God redeems through broken systems and faulty leaders
God redeems through failed plans.
God redeems through failed plans.
Moses speaks on God’s behalf after getting a word from God.
Like the perfect Job you have been waiting for.
God sends Moses to do the work after he showed him his power and ability to perform miracles.
In exodus 4 moses is equipped, ready, sent.
And fails.
Afterward Moses and Aaron went and said to Pharaoh, “Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, ‘Let my people go, that they may hold a feast to me in the wilderness.’ ” But Pharaoh said, “Who is the Lord, that I should obey his voice and let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, and moreover, I will not let Israel go.”
The Isrealites are not freed to go and they are forced to perform even harder labor.
So the taskmasters and the foremen of the people went out and said to the people, “Thus says Pharaoh, ‘I will not give you straw. Go and get your straw yourselves wherever you can find it, but your work will not be reduced in the least.’ ”
Things got worse for the Israelites, the very suffering Moses was hoping to alleviate
God is moving despite our ability to succeed in everything
God is not hoping that we will succeed in our work so that He can move. He is moving in our work so that He can succeed.
God redeems through failed plans with reminding Moses that He has kept His promises
moses goes back and is probably in disbelief. How did things go so wrong?
But the Lord said to Moses, “Now you shall see what I will do to Pharaoh; for with a strong hand he will send them out, and with a strong hand he will drive them out of his land.”
God spoke to Moses and said to him, “I am the Lord. I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by my name the Lord I did not make myself known to them. I also established my covenant with them to give them the land of Canaan, the land in which they lived as sojourners.
I served with an elder a number of years ago who was always 10-15 minutes early for a meeting. Never ever late. You could set your clock by him. One day we got to a meeting that he was supposed to be at and he wasn’t there. Normally that wouldn’t even affect me, we would think he would be on his way. But because his track record was always to be early, the fact that he was not even on time but late was extra concerning. someone contacted him and we found out he was on his way to the er.
We can understand how someone will react and act by how they have in the past.
God wants Moses to remember that He has called his people before and has worked in their lives faithfully up until this point.
that current circumstances do not negate the faithfulness of God.
He still calls us to remember. Because He wants us to know that as He acts in history He will act in our lives. He can be depended upon.
When our plans fail, we can remember that God is a God who has a track record of keeping his promises.
God redeems through broken spirits and burdened lives
God redeems through broken spirits and burdened lives
God is not saying that he will fix or mend the situation from a distance
He says, by calling himself a redeemer that He will get involved in the situation. He will stand on the Israelites behalf.
God will get involved.
And God gets involved after things get harder. God is involved in our lives. He has promised He would be.
Say therefore to the people of Israel, ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will deliver you from slavery to them, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great acts of judgment. I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God, and you shall know that I am the Lord your God, who has brought you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.
He brings us to Himself, He brings us into the land.
So when God acts He acts in a way that we can see what kind of God He is.
Why does that matter?
if we know who He is we don’t have to keep asking if there is something better.
In fact we mostly spend our days wondering if there is something better.
Have you ever gotten what you wanted and then thought, is there something better?
God shows us what kind of God He is, He is not saying this is what He does. He shows us who He is
He is a redeemer
He is a restorer
He is a deliverer
It is not jsut that He does these things, it is that He is these things.
God redeems through the brokeness of our Lives by telling us who He is presently. That He is a God with a track record but He is also a God who is present.
Moses spoke thus to the people of Israel, but they did not listen to Moses, because of their broken spirit and harsh slavery.
they couldn’t hear the language of remeberance of comfort
God reminds us who are crushed in spirit, whose plans have failed, that He is a God who has come to us, He is present.
When our lives are crushed we don’t have time for plans or rememberance, we need someone who is present.
God redeems through broken systems and faulty leaders
God redeems through broken systems and faulty leaders
So the Lord said to Moses, “Go in, tell Pharaoh king of Egypt to let the people of Israel go out of his land.” But Moses said to the Lord, “Behold, the people of Israel have not listened to me. How then shall Pharaoh listen to me, for I am of uncircumcised lips?” But the Lord spoke to Moses and Aaron and gave them a charge about the people of Israel and about Pharaoh king of Egypt: to bring the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt.
Pharaoh will only recognize power. he would never negotiate. He is godlike in authority.
Notice God’s ability invite a broken people into relationship with Him and at the same time be able to stand up to corruption.
Notice also that God is not standing up to corruption for corruption sake, He is showing power, He is showing authority for the sake of redeeming people.
GOd’s effort with power is always an effort toward justice.
When God corrects it is always toward justice, not toward the use of more power.
For pharaoh, power was just used to keep his reign in tact. It was used for imbalance. It was used for him.
God uses power for justice.
God redeems through promising justice. That He will bring justice to those who are oppressed. He will work through faulty systems and plans. He will bring justice where we have only seen power struggles.
And where justice is not God will work to bring it. He will work to bring order.
This is important because we all want justice. There is a common denominator in the human condition, that we all want justice.
And God is present, and He has a good track record and He is bringing justice.
So when we see not only faulty plans but faulty systems we can trust a God who will bring justice.
God has a good track record, He is present, He will bring justice.
Everyone hates the interruption of faulty plans, faulty power structures, and crushed lives.
It feels like that doesn’t it. Just one long interruption. Like nothing is happening.
It reminds me of the time we were stopped by construction on the Astoria Megler bridge overlooking the Columbia river. We were stopped 196 feet in the air overlooking one of the widest rivers in America. We waited for a good 10 minutes. The bridge shook as we waited. Certainly we would die at any minute.
But while we were thinking about our impending doom there was a whole outfit working on restoring the bridge.
While we nervously waited, workers were restoring the bridge built in 1966, bringing it back to original strenght
While we thought about the cold icy plunge, workers were thinking about the wind gusts that the bridge needed to endure, the current that the bridge needed to endure. And in order for them to address it it meant that we needed to stop.
Was it uncomfortable? Yes. Was it for our safety and flourishing? Yes.
All we could think about was, “why here?” Why in this place? Our minds were in our little minivan in our predicament all while there was all sorts of work happening all around us to reinforce and restore our situation.
When we find ourselves interrupted or waiting due to failed plans, or crushed spirits, or faulty structures, we can trust that there is a whole bunch of work happening to reinforce our situation. That the hosts of heaven are applying eternity to our situations. And that heaven itself, the place of justice and mercy and deliverance, is entering into our lives.
So when you are interrupted by failed plans or crushed spirits or faulty systems, you can trust that the Kingdom of Heaven, in which sits a king on your side, in entering into your life. Is working to reinforce and restore what has been lost.
